[originaltext]M: Nice to have you here, Karen. Could you tell us how you became

M: Nice to have you here, Karen. Could you tell us how you became interested in ballet?
W: Well, I actually saw Celia Franka dance, and now she founded the National Ballet of Canada. [1]And she was dancing in my hometown—Giselle, Canada, and I was taken for my birthday, and I saw her dance, I fell in love with it, [2] and I started taking lessons of it when I was around ten.
M: Now you were married fairly recently, weren’t you?
W: It’ll be three years next month, yes.
M: Is touring and so forth hard on married life? I believe your husband’s an actor, isn’t he?
W: Yes, he is.
M: So you’re probably both away quite a lot.
W: We’ve been very fortunate. [3]We’ve managed to stay together most of the time. The longest we were separated was when I was on tour with the National Ballet in Europe last spring, and I was gone for six weeks, and he was making a television series and he was in Australia for six weeks. So we have been separated a few times, but most of the time we manage to be together. We’ve just been very fortunate.
M: Throughout the year... how much time do you have off away from the dance?
W: Very little. I’m trying to make sure that I get one week in June this year, [4]because I have not had more than two days free since a year ago. So I’ve been working very hard, and I feel that I really need one week free, you know.
M: How long can a ballerina go on before she should start thinking of retiring?
W: I hope that I have another ten years at most to dance.
M: What would you do after that? Would you leave the ballet completely or go into teaching, or choreography?
W: I don’t think choreography, I don’t think I have any talent in... you know... I have no desire, no talent. [5]I like to teach. I like to coach young dancers. I don’t think I would leave the ballet world entirely, but I may try something else. You never know. I’m interested in other things and I have done some sorts of musical comedy work, and I’ve enjoyed it very much—just to expand myself a little and to look around. And this Christmas again I’ll be playing Cinderella in an English pantomime—which is great fun for me. I really have fun and it’s not serious dancing, you know, and I get to speak and act and everything. So I don’t know. I would also like to have a family, so I have a lot of things that I may do.
1. Where’s Karen from?
2. When did Karen start taking ballet lessons?
3. What can we learn from the conversation about Karen’s married life?
4. How many days has the woman been off away from the dance since last year?
5. What would Karen probably do after retiring?